With this excellent supermarket Spain's culinary finesse (simplicity?) is just around the corner:…read more You can find everything you'd need for a successful tapas party and so much more. Beer, wine, water, soft drinks, cookies, sweets, cheese, ham, fish, seafood, meat, mojo sauces, desserts you name it, they got it. And the good no even better news is that none of these things will cost you a fortune. So you can load up your shopping trolley to the max and still have a few Euro left. Handily enough you can spend the remaining cash right in their little bar next door - on a few different meals for lunch.

Cool space, in a quasi-industrial landscape, not far from the #2 and #3 bus stops. Big enough and…read morecasual/industrial/funky to match many U.S. brewpubs. When I went there last night, people were cool and laid back. No oom-pah band and locked arms, swaying, and singing (I'm being TOTALLY facetious here). Staff are hip too. About 45 people were in a group at tables getting a beer lecture/tasting. The hipness, the group tasting - - this illustrates the state of the craft beer movement in Germany today, and the beers reflect that as well: the beers are almost satisfying, almost good expressions of each style, almost worth drinking. I'm sure the 45 people getting the beer lecture/tasting found them curious, if not intriguing. (Reminds me of the state of the craft beer movement in the U.S. 15 or 20 years ago.) I've had a few of the Hopper before, but they are not something I buy to drink at my home in Hamburg. For someone from the States, who is used to picking up plenty GREAT expressions of the different styles they make, which you can get in many shades of excellence in the U.S., it's not worth committing 12 ounces of palate time and belly space to what are, basically, nice attempts. At the brewpub I had the "Salonsozialist" weizenbock - - it was almost worthwhile, but lacking when compared to such immaculate standards here as the Weihenstephaner Vitus, or Schneider Aventinus. It isn't worth the trek out here to have something not in the same league. And, overall, unless German craft brewers can start producing really stellar beers, and not just 'almosts', and flawed expressions, hip though it may be, the craft brew movement in Germany will be on shaky footing.

I misread the business hours and showed up on a day that the tasting room was closed. I was still…read moreable to buy a few bottles, though. The folks there were very friendly and helpful to me. I had the Dunkle Macht that night and it was very impressive. It easily unseats my previous favorite porters. I can't wait to try the other two beers. I'd like to thank the people working there for being kind and helpful. Hopefully I'll be able to return again!